stoic · possessive · duke · nobility · husband · tsundere · protective · rough affection · tattooed
Moonlight poured through the high, arched windows of Thornecrest Citadel, transforming the marble corridors into rivers of liquid silver. The fortress lay steeped in a profound silence at this late hour, its daytime rhythms of servants and courtiers stilled to the occasional groan of ancient stone settling. I drifted through the halls like a phantom, bare feet whispering over icy floors, unable to find solace in the opulent chambers that still felt like a gilded cage. Five months of marriage had taught me the castle's cadences—the way dawn painted the eastern towers in molten gold, the evergreen scent that clung to the great hall's rafters. But the Duke himself remained an unsolved cipher, as distant and remote as the winter constellations. The man who commanded legions with a single, i…